Security policies for your Network Load Balancer
When you create a TLS listener, you must select a security policy. A security policy determines which ciphers and protocols are supported during SSL negotiations between your load balancer and clients. You can update the security policy for your load balancer if your requirements change or when we release a new security policy. For more information, see Update the security policy.
Considerations
-
A TLS listener requires a security policy. If you do not specify a security policy when you create the listener, we use the default security policy. The default security policy depends on how you created the TLS listener:
-
Console – The default security policy is
ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS13-1-2-Res-PQ-2025-09. -
Other methods (for example, the AWS CLI, AWS CloudFormation, and the AWS CDK) – The default security policy is
ELBSecurityPolicy-2016-08.
-
-
Security policies with PQ in their names offer hybrid post-quantum key exchange. For compatibility, they support both classical and post-quantum ML-KEM key exchange algorithms. Clients must support the ML-KEM key exchange to use hybrid post-quantum TLS for key exchange. The hybrid post-quantum policies support SecP256r1MLKEM768, SecP384r1MLKEM1024 and X25519MLKEM768 algorithms. For more information, see Post-quantum Cryptography
. -
AWS recommends implementing the new post-quantum TLS (PQ-TLS) based security policy
ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS13-1-2-Res-PQ-2025-09orELBSecurityPolicy-TLS13-1-2-FIPS-PQ-2025-09. This policy ensures backward compatibility by supporting clients capable of negotiating hybrid PQ-TLS, TLS 1.3 only, or TLS 1.2 only, thereby minimizing service disruption during the transition to post-quantum cryptography. You can progressively migrate to more restrictive security policies as your client applications develop the capability to negotiate PQ-TLS for key exchange operations. -
You can enable access logs for information about the TLS requests sent to your Network Load Balancer, analyze TLS traffic patterns, manage security policy upgrades, and troubleshoot issues. Enable access logging for your load balancer and examine the corresponding access log entries. For more information, see Access logs and Network Load Balancer Example Queries.
-
To view the TLS protocol version (log field position 5) and key exchange (log field position 13) for access requests to your load balancer, enable access logging and examine the corresponding log entries. For more information, see Access logs.
-
You can restrict which security policies are available to users across your AWS accounts and AWS Organizations by using the ELB condition keys in your IAM and service control policies (SCPs), respectively. For more information, see Service control policies (SCPs) in the AWS Organizations User Guide.
-
Policies that support only TLS 1.3 support Forward Secrecy (FS). Policies that support TLS 1.3 and TLS 1.2 that have only ciphers of the form TLS_* and ECDHE_* also provide FS.
-
Network Load Balancers support the Extended Master Secret (EMS) extension for TLS 1.2.
Backend Connections
You can choose the security policy that is used for front-end connections, but not backend connections. The security policy for backend connections depends on the listener's security policy. If any of your listeners are using:
-
FIPS post-quantum TLS policy - Backend connections use
ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS13-1-0-FIPS-PQ-2025-09 -
FIPS policy - Backend connections use
ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS13-1-0-FIPS-2023-04 -
Post-quantum TLS policy - Backend connections use
ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS13-1-0-PQ-2025-09 -
TLS 1.3 policy - Backend connections use
ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS13-1-0-2021-06 -
All other TLS policies backend connections use
ELBSecurityPolicy-2016-08
You can describe the protocols and ciphers using the describe-ssl-policies AWS CLI command, or refer to the tables below.
Security policies
TLS security policies
You can use the TLS security policies to meet compliance and security standards that require disabling certain TLS protocol versions, or to support legacy clients that require deprecated ciphers.
Policies that support only TLS 1.3 support Forward Secrecy (FS). Policies that support TLS 1.3 and TLS 1.2 that have only ciphers of the form TLS_* and ECDHE_* also provide FS.
Protocols by policy
The following table describes the protocols that each TLS security policy supports.
| Security policies | TLS 1.3 | TLS 1.2 | TLS 1.1 | TLS 1.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS13-1-3-2021-06 | ||||
| ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS13-1-3-PQ-2025-09 | ||||
| ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS13-1-2-2021-06 | ||||
| ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS13-1-2-PQ-2025-09 | ||||
| ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS13-1-2-Res-2021-06 | ||||
| ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS13-1-2-Res-PQ-2025-09 | ||||
| ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS13-1-2-Ext2-2021-06 | ||||
| ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS13-1-2-Ext2-PQ-2025-09 | ||||
| ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS13-1-2-Ext1-2021-06 | ||||
| ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS13-1-2-Ext1-PQ-2025-09 | ||||
| ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS13-1-1-2021-06 | ||||
| ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS13-1-0-2021-06 | ||||
| ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS13-1-0-PQ-2025-09 | ||||
| ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS-1-2-Ext-2018-06 | ||||
| ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS-1-2-2017-01 | ||||
| ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS-1-1-2017-01 | ||||
| ELBSecurityPolicy-2016-08 | ||||
| ELBSecurityPolicy-2015-05 |
Ciphers by policy
The following table describes the ciphers that each TLS security policy supports.
| Security policy | Ciphers |
|---|---|
|
ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS13-1-3-2021-06 ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS13-1-3-PQ-2025-09 |
|
|
ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS13-1-2-2021-06 ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS13-1-2-PQ-2025-09 |
|
|
ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS13-1-2-Res-2021-06 ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS13-1-2-Res-PQ-2025-09 |
|
|
ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS13-1-2-Ext2-2021-06 ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS13-1-2-Ext2-PQ-2025-09 |
|
|
ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS13-1-2-Ext1-2021-06 ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS13-1-2-Ext1-PQ-2025-09 |
|
| ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS13-1-1-2021-06 |
|
|
ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS13-1-0-2021-06 ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS13-1-0-PQ-2025-09 |
|
| ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS-1-2-Ext-2018-06 |
|
| ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS-1-2-2017-01 |
|
| ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS-1-1-2017-01 |
|
| ELBSecurityPolicy-2016-08 |
|
| ELBSecurityPolicy-2015-05 |
|
Policies by cipher
The following table describes the TLS security policies that support each cipher.
| Cipher name | Security policies | Cipher suite |
|---|---|---|
|
OpenSSL – TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256 IANA – TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256 |
|
1301 |
|
OpenSSL – TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 IANA – TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 |
|
1302 |
|
OpenSSL – TLS_CHACHA20_POLY1305_SHA256 IANA – TLS_CHACHA20_POLY1305_SHA256 |
|
1303 |
|
OpenSSL – ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256 IANA – TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256 |
|
c02b |
|
OpenSSL – ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256 IANA – TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256 |
|
c02f |
|
OpenSSL – ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-SHA256 IANA – TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256 |
|
c023 |
|
OpenSSL – ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA256 IANA – TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256 |
|
c027 |
|
OpenSSL – ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-SHA IANA – TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA |
|
c009 |
|
OpenSSL – ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA IANA – TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA |
|
c013 |
|
OpenSSL – ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 IANA – TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 |
|
c02c |
|
OpenSSL – ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 IANA – TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 |
|
c030 |
|
OpenSSL – ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-SHA384 IANA – TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA384 |
|
c024 |
|
OpenSSL – ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA384 IANA – TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA384 |
|
c028 |
|
OpenSSL – ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-SHA IANA – TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA |
|
c00a |
|
OpenSSL – ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA IANA – TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA |
|
c014 |
|
OpenSSL – AES128-GCM-SHA256 IANA – TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256 |
|
9c |
|
OpenSSL – AES128-SHA256 IANA – TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256 |
|
3c |
|
OpenSSL – AES128-SHA IANA – TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA |
|
2f |
|
OpenSSL – AES256-GCM-SHA384 IANA – TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 |
|
9d |
|
OpenSSL – AES256-SHA256 IANA – TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA256 |
|
3d |
|
OpenSSL – AES256-SHA IANA – TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA |
|
35 |
FIPS security policies
The Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) is a US and Canadian
government standard that specifies the security requirements for cryptographic
modules that protect sensitive information. To learn more, see Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140
All FIPS policies leverage the AWS-LC FIPS validated cryptographic module. To learn more,
see the
AWS-LC Cryptographic Module
Important
Policies ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS13-1-1-FIPS-2023-04 and ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS13-1-0-FIPS-2023-04
are provided for legacy compatibility only. While they utilize FIPS cryptography using the FIPS140 module, they may not
conform to the latest NIST guidance for TLS configuration.
Protocols by policy
The following table describes the protocols that each FIPS security policy supports.
| Security policies | TLS 1.3 | TLS 1.2 | TLS 1.1 | TLS 1.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS13-1-3-FIPS-2023-04 | ||||
| ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS13-1-3-FIPS-PQ-2025-09 | ||||
| ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS13-1-2-FIPS-2023-04 | ||||
| ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS13-1-2-FIPS-PQ-2025-09 | ||||
| ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS13-1-2-Res-FIPS-2023-04 | ||||
| ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS13-1-2-Res-FIPS-PQ-2025-09 | ||||
| ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS13-1-2-Ext2-FIPS-2023-04 | ||||
| ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS13-1-2-Ext2-FIPS-PQ-2025-09 | ||||
| ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS13-1-2-Ext1-FIPS-2023-04 | ||||
| ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS13-1-2-Ext1-FIPS-PQ-2025-09 | ||||
| ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS13-1-2-Ext0-FIPS-2023-04 | ||||
| ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS13-1-2-Ext0-FIPS-PQ-2025-09 | ||||
| ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS13-1-1-FIPS-2023-04 | ||||
| ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS13-1-0-FIPS-2023-04 | ||||
| ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS13-1-0-FIPS-PQ-2025-09 |
Ciphers by policy
The following table describes the ciphers that each FIPS security policy supports.
| Security policy | Ciphers |
|---|---|
|
ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS13-1-3-FIPS-2023-04 ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS13-1-3-FIPS-PQ-2025-09 |
|
|
ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS13-1-2-FIPS-2023-04 ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS13-1-2-FIPS-PQ-2025-09 |
|
|
ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS13-1-2-Res-FIPS-2023-04 ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS13-1-2-Res-FIPS-PQ-2025-09 |
|
|
ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS13-1-2-Ext2-FIPS-2023-04 ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS13-1-2-Ext2-FIPS-PQ-2025-09 |
|
|
ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS13-1-2-Ext1-FIPS-2023-04 ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS13-1-2-Ext1-FIPS-PQ-2025-09 |
|
|
ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS13-1-2-Ext0-FIPS-2023-04 ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS13-1-2-Ext0-FIPS-PQ-2025-09 |
|
| ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS13-1-1-FIPS-2023-04 |
|
|
ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS13-1-0-FIPS-2023-04 ELBSecurityPolicy-TLS13-1-0-FIPS-PQ-2025-09 |
|
Policies by cipher
The following table describes the FIPS security policies that support each cipher.
| Cipher name | Security policies | Cipher suite |
|---|---|---|
|
OpenSSL – TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256 IANA – TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256 |
|
1301 |
|
OpenSSL – TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 IANA – TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 |
|
1302 |
|
OpenSSL – ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256 IANA – TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256 |
|
c02b |
|
OpenSSL – ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256 IANA – TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256 |
|
c02f |
|
OpenSSL – ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-SHA256 IANA – TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256 |
|
c023 |
|
OpenSSL – ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA256 IANA – TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256 |
|
c027 |
|
OpenSSL – ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-SHA IANA – TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA |
|
c009 |
|
OpenSSL – ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA IANA – TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA |
|
c013 |
|
OpenSSL – ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 IANA – TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 |
|
c02c |
|
OpenSSL – ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 IANA – TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 |
|
c030 |
|
OpenSSL – ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-SHA384 IANA – TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA384 |
|
c024 |
|
OpenSSL – ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA384 IANA – TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA384 |
|
c028 |
|
OpenSSL – ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-SHA IANA – TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA |
|
c00a |
|
OpenSSL – ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA IANA – TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA |
|
c014 |
|
OpenSSL – AES128-GCM-SHA256 IANA – TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256 |
|
9c |
|
OpenSSL – AES128-SHA256 IANA – TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256 |
|
3c |
|
OpenSSL – AES128-SHA IANA – TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA |
|
2f |
|
OpenSSL – AES256-GCM-SHA384 IANA – TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 |
|
9d |
|
OpenSSL – AES256-SHA256 IANA – TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA256 |
|
3d |
|
OpenSSL – AES256-SHA IANA – TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA |
|
35 |
FS supported security policies
FS (Forward Secrecy) supported security policies provide additional safeguards against the eavesdropping of encrypted data, through the use of a unique random session key. This prevents the decoding of captured data, even if the secret long-term key is compromised.
The policies in this section support FS, and "FS" is included in their names. However, these are not the only policies that support FS. Policies that support only TLS 1.3 support FS. Policies that support TLS 1.3 and TLS 1.2 that have only ciphers of the form TLS_* and ECDHE_* also provide FS.
Protocols by policy
The following table describes the protocols that each FS supported security policy supports.
| Security policies | TLS 1.3 | TLS 1.2 | TLS 1.1 | TLS 1.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ELBSecurityPolicy-FS-1-2-Res-2020-10 | ||||
| ELBSecurityPolicy-FS-1-2-Res-2019-08 | ||||
| ELBSecurityPolicy-FS-1-2-2019-08 | ||||
| ELBSecurityPolicy-FS-1-1-2019-08 | ||||
| ELBSecurityPolicy-FS-2018-06 |
Ciphers by policy
The following table describes the ciphers that each FS supported security policy supports.
| Security policy | Ciphers |
|---|---|
| ELBSecurityPolicy-FS-1-2-Res-2020-10 |
|
| ELBSecurityPolicy-FS-1-2-Res-2019-08 |
|
| ELBSecurityPolicy-FS-1-2-2019-08 |
|
| ELBSecurityPolicy-FS-1-1-2019-08 |
|
| ELBSecurityPolicy-FS-2018-06 |
|
Policies by cipher
The following table describes the FS supported security policies that support each cipher.
| Cipher name | Security policies | Cipher suite |
|---|---|---|
|
OpenSSL – ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256 IANA – TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256 |
|
c02b |
|
OpenSSL – ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256 IANA – TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256 |
|
c02f |
|
OpenSSL – ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-SHA256 IANA – TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256 |
|
c023 |
|
OpenSSL – ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA256 IANA – TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256 |
|
c027 |
|
OpenSSL – ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-SHA IANA – TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA |
|
c009 |
|
OpenSSL – ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA IANA – TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA |
|
c013 |
|
OpenSSL – ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 IANA – TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 |
|
c02c |
|
OpenSSL – ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 IANA – TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 |
|
c030 |
|
OpenSSL – ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-SHA384 IANA – TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA384 |
|
c024 |
|
OpenSSL – ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA384 IANA – TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA384 |
|
c028 |
|
OpenSSL – ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-SHA IANA – TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA |
|
c00a |
|
OpenSSL – ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA IANA – TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA |
|
c014 |
